Flowers Of The Roadsides And Hedges. Order Geraxiace.ae

Description

Flowers Of The Roadsides And Hedges. Order Geraxiace.ae

Small Crane's Bill (Geranium Pusillum, L.)

The habitat of this plant is waysides, hedge-banks, cultivated ground, and waste places. The habit is prostrate, then erect, or with a semi-rosette habit. The stem is spreading, downy, the down soft and short. The leaves are as in G. molle, but deeply lobed, kidney-shaped, with 5-7 lobes radiating from a common centre, divided into three. The flowers are numerous, small, pale-rose, not longer than the calyx, the stalks in the axils shorter than the leaves, bent down in front. The petals are notched, the claw fringed with hairs. The sepals are blunt, pointed, or acute. The perfect stamens are often only 5. The style is pale flesh-colour. The carpels persist, and are keeled, not wrinkled, with closely pressed hairs. The seeds are smooth. The plant is 6-18 in. high, flowering from June to September, and is a herbaceous annual.

Jagged-Leaved Geranium (Geranium Dissectum, L.)

The habitat of this plant is hedges, waste places, and cultivated ground. The habit is prostrate, then ascending. The stem is branched. hairy, and rather glandular. The leaves are much-divided nearly to the base, with 5-7 linear segments, deeply irregularly lobed, longer than the short flower-stalks. The footstalks are short. The stipules are egg-shaped, with a long, narrow point. The flowers are axillary, small, shortly-stalked, bluish-purple or bright-red, the petals notched, short, inversely egg-shaped, the claw fringed with hairs, about as long as the sepals, which have a long awn. The carpels are not wrinkled, smooth, even, or with erect hairs. The seeds are pitted. The plant is 6-iS in. high, flowering from June to August, and is a herbaceous annual.

Shining Crane's Bill (Geranium Lucidum, L.)

The habitat of this plant is hedgerows, hedge-banks, rocky places, and old walls. The habit is prostrate, then ascending. The plant is brittle and succulent. The stem is hairless, shining (hence lucidum), spreading, tinged with red. The upper branches have two lines of hairs. The leaves are rounded, kidney-shaped. 5-lobed, the segments scalloped, bent, blunt-pointed. The leaf-stalk is long, but less than the flower-stalk. The stipules are egg-shaped, acute. The flowers are rosecolour. The calyx is wrinkled, pyramidal. The claw of the inversely egg-shaped, entire petal is without hairs, long, nearly equal to the calyx, which has long-awned sepals, shorter than the petals. The carpels are wrinkled, keeled, netted, separating from the axis, hairless, glandular, or hairy above. The seeds are smooth.